Native Irish Honey bee Society

[drumgerry]

Well, it seems that I wasn't entirely right there and so I'd like to apologise to the Moray beekeepers. I'm assured that they are intending to breed from local (but not Amm) stocks, and will be buying additional commercial nucs that have a UK origin .... plus Buckfast queens for their association apiary. That last bit in particular I still think is unwise and may ultimately lead to worse (bee!) temper as they mix with other local stocks (and vice versa, as always), but hey!, I'm trying to apologise for implying that the Moray initiative is switching to Buckfast breeding.

I'd be interested to know if Moray are still providing the new beekeepers on their beginners courses with nucs headed by Buckfast queens and sourced from Ged Marshall. Who of course sources his breeder queens from Keld Brandstrup in Denmark and breeds F1 queens from them for sale in the UK. So in effect we have imported bees but one stage removed.

[gavin]

How far from their breeding site is the association apiary? If they have a remote area it might work, bit to what end if they aren't wanting to replace current stocks with local bees?

Don't know the distances, but they plan the buckfasts to be a short-term fix for less than peaceable bees at their association apiary. It concerns me that such short-term fixes can turn into long-term problems (I've experienced that myself from imports made by a neighbour) but perhaps they have a plan for that.


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[drumgerry]

The breeding site is their association apiary unless things have changed since my time. So not sure how they'll avoid unruly crosses.

[brothermoo]

II? Mad
I think here in Belfast we are trying to get as many people involved in queen rearing so as to 1. Increase the overall stock we can breed from but 2. Have the locality flooded with drones of the right make up. Perhaps a map of where beekeepers are would be handy and sightings of congregation zones recorded to pinpoint where best to place mating hives

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[Jon]

sightings of congregation zones

Young Mr Moo. I have witnessed a queen mating right above the site at Minnowburn and several at my allotment site.
I don't know what percentage of queens fly to drone congregation areas but quite a few of mine seem to mate above the apiary itself.

[brothermoo]

I remember you saying that at one point, was that due to bad weather that they were just happy to mate there or is that quite common?
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[Jon]

When I saw this happen the weather was perfect, blue skies and over 20c.
I know Beowulf Cooper says this is supposed to happen in bad weather when queens can't fly to DCAs but that is not what I have seen.
I reckon I have seen this a few times as there are times when I have over 50 virgin queens in apideas so statistically I have a better chance of stumbling upon this than someone with just a hive or two.
You could miss it easily enough as there is a mating swarm with the queen comprised of the contents of the apidea, just a few hundred bees.

I wrote about it at the time

[brothermoo]

Cool... As they say the bees don't read the books. I suppose we can't all be lucky enough to have matings over our apiary Jon!
Whenever I set up my mating site I shall be expecting to see it

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[Dark Bee]

I wonder how DCA's have been effected by the virtual elimination of wild colonies and the reduction in the numbers of colonies kept in hives?
It is quite a few years now since I last heard "a sound of summer".

[Jon]

I wonder how DCA's have been effected by the virtual elimination of wild colonies and the reduction in the numbers of colonies kept in hives?
It is quite a few years now since I last heard "a sound of summer".

No idea but that could certainly be a factor.
A virgin queen mating above an apiary with a dozen colonies in it is guaranteed to have drones present.